¹ French Land Register data, which exclude lakes, ponds, and glaciers larger than 1 km² (0.386 sq. mi. or 247 acres) as well as the estuaries of rivers

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Nord-Pas de Calais is one of the 26 régions of France. It combines the départements of Nord and Pas-de-Calais, in the far north of the country, bordering with Belgium. Until the end of the 20th century "Nord" was also the name of the région, as well as that of the département. The région was once part of the Southern Netherlands, within the Low Countries, and became totally French in 1713. The historical provinces now included in Nord-Pas de Calais are, mainly, Artois and Flanders (Flandre in French, in the singular), designations which are still frequently used by the inhabitants.

It is an extremely densely populated region with some 4 million inhabitants - 7% of France's total population, making it the fourth most populous region in the country - 83% of whom live in urban communities. Its administrative centre is the city of Lille. Other major towns include Valenciennes, Lens, Douai, Béthune, Dunkirk, Maubeuge, Calais, Boulogne-sur-Mer and Arras.

1 History
2 Demographics
3 Economy
4 External links

[edit] History

Inhabited since prehistoric times, the Nord-Pas de Calais region has always been a strategic (and hence one of the most fought-over) region in Europe. French President Charles de Gaulle, who was born in Lille, called the region a "fatal avenue" through which invading armies repeatedly passed. It was conquered in turn by the Celtic Belgae, the Romans, the barbarian Franks and the Alamanni.

During the middle ages, the Pas-de-Calais department comprised County of Boulogne and the County of Artois, while Nord department is mostly made up of the southern portions of the County of Flanders and the County of Hainaut. Boulogne, Artois, and Flanders were fiefs of the French crown, while Hainaut was within the Holy Roman Empire. Calais, from [[1347] to 1558, when it was recovered by the French throne, was an English possession. All of the territories save Calais were united under the rule of the Dukes of Burgundy in the 15th century, along with other territories in northern France and areas in what is now Belgium, Luxembourg, and the Netherlands, as well. With the death of the Burgundian duke Charles the Bold in 1477, the Boulonnais and Artois were seized by the French crown, while Flanders and Hainaut were inherited by Charles's daughter Marie. Shortly thereafter, in 1492, Artois was ceded back to Marie's son Philip the Handsome, as part of an attempt to keep Philip's father, Emperor Maximilian I, neutral in French King Charles VIII's prospective invasion of Italy.

Thus, most of the territories of what is now Nord-Pas de Calais were reunited to the Burgundian inheritance, which had passed through Marie's marriage to the House of Habsburg. These territories formed an integral part of the Seventeen Provinces of the Netherlands as they were defined during the reign of Philip's son, Emperor Charles V, and passed to Charles's son, Philip II of Spain. When the Netherlands revolted against Spanish rule, beginning in 1566, the territories in what is now Nord-Pas de Calais were those most loyal to the throne, and proved the base from which the Duke of Parma was able to bring the whole southern part of the Netherlands back under Spanish control.

During the wars between France and Spain in the 17th century (1635 -1659, 1667-1668, 1672-1678, 1688-1697), these territories became the principal seat of conflict between the two states. French control over the area was gradually established - Artois was annexed in 1659, and most of the current Nord department had been acquired by the Treaty of Nijmegen in 1678. The current borders were mostly established by the time of the Treaty of Ryswick in 1697.

The area, previously divided among the French provinces of Flanders, Artois, and Picardy, was divided into its present two départements following the French Revolution of 1789.

During the 19th century, the region underwent major industrialisation and became one of the leading industrial regions of France, second only to Alsace-Lorraine. Nord-Pas de Calais was barely touched by the Franco-Prussian War of 1870; indeed, the war actually helped it to cement its leading role in French industry due to the loss of Alsace-Lorraine to Germany. However, it suffered catastrophic damage in the two World Wars of the 20th century. In the First World War, much of the region was occupied by Germany. Many of its towns and hundreds of square miles of land were wrecked in four years of trench warfare, with the region suffering more damage than any other part of France. Germany occupied it again in the Second World War and used the region as a launching base for attacks on England by the Luftwaffe and the V-1 and V-2 missile systems. Heavy Allied bombing and fighting on the ground again devastated many of the region's towns. Although most of the region was liberated in September 1944, Dunkirk was not liberated until 9 May 1945, making it the last French town to be freed from German occupation. The region's conflicted history is memorialised in numerous war cemeteries and memorials, such as the Vimy Memorial at Vimy Ridge, which is Canada's most important memorial to its fallen soldiers.

Since the war, the region has suffered from severe economic difficulties (see Economy below) but has benefitted from the opening of the Channel Tunnel and the growth in cross-Channel traffic in general.

[edit] Demographics

While the region is predominately French-speaking, it also has two significant minority language communities: the western Flemings, whose presence is evident in the many Dutch placenames in the area and who speak the West Flemish dialect of the Dutch language, and the Picards, who speak the Picard language. In addition, the region's ethnic diversity has been affected by repeated waves of immigrant workers from abroad - Belgians before 1910, Poles and Italians in the 1920s and 1930s, and North Africans since 1945.

The French administration has continuously oppressed the Flemish language and culture which is now largely eradicated. Despite some local efforts to support the original culture and language of these departements, the French government continues to refuse to recognize Dutch as an official minority language.

The French state has also sought to boost the region's relatively neglected culture; in 2004, it was announced that a branch of the Louvre would be opened in the city of Lens.

[edit] Economy

Nord-Pas de Calais became a major centre of heavy industry in the 19th century with coal mines, steel mills and traditional textile manufacture. It suffered badly in both World Wars and did less well than other parts of France in the subsequent recoveries. In recent years, it experienced an economic slump as the mines closed, the steel industry declined and the textile industry ran into problems. Between 1975-1984, the region lost over 130,000 jobs and unemployment rose to 14% of the working population, well above the national average. The region has, however, benefited from major government and European Union investment over the past 20 years. The opening of the Channel Tunnel in 1994 was welcomed in the region as a means of boosting its prosperity. Tourism, particularly in Lille at the apex of the London-Brussels-Paris railway lines, has grown considerably, to the extent that in 2004, 7 million passengers used the Eurostar, as well as 2 million vehicles on the Eurotunnel (formerly Le Shuttle)[1]. On top of the trains, in 2002, there were about 15 million embarkations and disembarkations from the three major ferry ports of the region (Calais, Dunkerque and Boulogne-sur-Mer)[2].